Search results for "Life cycle"
showing 10 items of 378 documents
Energy evaluation and life cycle assessment of an innovative building integrated technology: the smart window-luminescent solar concentrator
2022
Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSC) represent one of the innovative and potentially most versatile technologies related to Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV). The peculiarity of these devices lies in the fact that they can be integrated into the surface of the building to replace openings such as skylights or windows, thanks to their characteristic of being semi-transparent and of functioning both with direct and diffused radiation. Eni developed the own technology Eni Ray Plus® based on LSC and integrated it in a multifunctional smart window-LSC (SW-LSC) prototype. The device uses the energy produced by LSC modules to power an autonomous and passive shading system, exploiting irrad…
Comparative life cycle impact assessment of electric and conventional bus in Vietnam
2022
Transportation is one of the key sectors causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution. With the substantial increase in passenger and freight transportation, the corresponding GHG emissions and air pollutants are expected to increase significantly. Recent global and national policies are targeting at reducing environmental impacts of transportation activities. The promotion of public transportation and development of electric buses (e-buses) will reduce the use of fossil fuels in transportation, and consequently, reduce GHG emissions. This study assesses the life cycle GHG emissions and other environmental impacts of e-bus, and compares them with those of conventional bus operat…
Environmental management of granite slab production from an industrial ecology standpoint
2014
The granite production chain is high energy and water intensive with low resource efficiency. This paper focus on characterizing the potential for environmental improvement of the granite production chain by promoting the optimization of sawing technology, the implementation of rainwater harvesting (RWH) and the material recovery of wasted granite (sludge). The environmental performance of multi-blade gangsaw (MBGS) and diamond multi-wire saw (DMWS) technologies is compared by mean of life cycle assessment. Results demonstrate that DMWS technology contribute 30% of water savings, 40% of energy savings and 80% of material savings per square meter of polished granite tiles (60 x 40 x 2 cm) pr…
Energy and environmental life-cycle impacts of solar-assisted systems: The application of the tool “ELISA”
2020
Abstract Solar heating and cooling (SHC) systems can be relevant in the achievement of energy and climate European goals. The benefits of these technologies should be evaluated taking into account their life-cycle energy and environmental impacts, calculated by applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The development of a complete LCA can be difficult and time-consuming particularly for non-experts in LCA, discouraging them in developing the life-cycle assessments. To overcome this issue, the paper presents “ELISA - Environmental Lifecycle Impacts of Solar Air-conditioning systems”, a user-friendly simplified tool for estimating the life-cycle energy and environmental benefits/impacts of s…
Use of drones as complement to safety tests on the structures. Study on the chimney stacks of the brownfields
2017
Our cities are rich in historical testimonies of a productive past, many industrial areas that years ago have been a source of income and work are now totally abandoned. Chimneys stacks are an interesting constructive historical episode, because of their representativeness and their materic characteristics. Their size and location, often inside the city centers, sometimes makes them potentially dangerous to safety, so it is necessary to study their conservation status and their resistance to time and stress. The difficulty of finding designs and reliefs and their height and position often make the approach to knowledge difficult, so putting together traditional methods of study with tools u…
Issues and Perspectives in the Application of Different Pavement Design Methods to Life Cycle Cost Analysis
2016
Life cycle costs analysis (LCCA) is an economic evaluation tool that can provide valuable guidance to transportation officials in management decision process. The application of LCCA to pavement management is vital because it permits the selection of the best alternative, based on the analysis of agency costs and user costs, taking into account (after selecting pavement type) different maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) strategies within the same pavement type. Additionally, environmental costs can be considered. Issues arise when comparing the expected life of the pavement derived according to different pavement design tools, such as the Mechanistic-Empirical pavement Design Guide (M…
Energy and environmental assessment of a traction lithium-ion battery pack for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
2019
Abstract Traction batteries are a key factor in the environmental sustainability of electric mobility and, therefore, it is necessary to evaluate their environmental performance to allow a comprehensive sustainability assessment of electric mobility. This article presents an environmental assessment of a lithium-ion traction battery for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, characterized by a composite cathode material of lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2O4) and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide Li(NixCoyMn1-x-y)O2. Composite cathode material is an emerging technology that promises to combine the merits of several active materials into a hybrid electrode to optimize performance and reduce cost…
SURFACE AND MECHANISTIC PROPERTIES OF RECYCLED BITUMINOUS MIXTURES
2019
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Problem Often, when the characteristics of a bituminous mixture are analised, there are major differences between in-lab and in-situ results. This is due to the fact that the procedures and techniques implemented during the design phase (in lab) may be different from those used on site. Then, is very important to be able to predict the main properties of a mixture particularly when innovative materials are used. For example, when crumb rubber is used, phisical and volumetric properties of mixes may change over time, in particular due to the swelling phenomenon that it alters different properties of the mixture (e.g., viscosity). This study aims to investigate the main aspe…
Do bank voles (Myodes glareolus) trapped in live and lethal traps show differences in tick burden?
2020
In studies assessing tick abundance, the use of live traps to capture and euthanize rodent hosts is a commonly used method to determine their burden. However, captive animals can experience debilitating or fatal capture stress as a result prior to collection. An alternative method is the use of lethal traps, but this can potentially lead to tick drop-off between the time of capture and collection. In this study, in order to determine whether subjecting animals to capture stress is inevitable, we tested the difference in sheep tick (Ixodes ricinus) larval burdens between bank voles (Myodes glareolus) captured alive and euthanized, and lethally trapped bank voles. During 2017 and 2018, 1318 b…
Work careers in adults separated temporarily from their parents in childhood during World War II.
2019
Introduction: Traumatic experiences, such as separation from parents in childhood causing early life stress (ELS) may increase the risk of adverse long-term health outcomes and biological age-related changes. This may have an impact on work career. Our aim was to examine long term consequences of ELS due to temporary separation from parents during World War II (WWII) in relation to work career. - Material and methods: The Helsinki Birth Cohort Study comprises 13,345 individuals born in Helsinki, Finland, between the years 1934–1944. From the original cohort, 1781 individuals were identified as being separated temporarily from their parents due to World War II. Information on date and type o…